Opinion
Letters

Unoriginal

The local "Just Fing vote" campaign to inspire young voters is not original. It is recycled from an American idea that is four or five years old.

So, "just Fing" stop it and get some new ideas.

Brantford deserves better.

Warren Bechard

Brantford

Climate policies survey

This week the Progressive Conservative party of Ontario will choose a new leader. I look forward to learning more about their plans for addressing the climate crisis. As an Ontarian, I want my province to lead on the climate. What I am about to say is not hyperbole: the window to address this crisis is rapidly closing and our climate policies woefully inadequate to save the climate.

The Citizens' Climate Lobby is conducting a survey of the climate change-related election platforms of the four major political parties in Ontario prior to the provincial election in June. The data the parties share with us will be published online on our website in a table format. We will not rank parties nor give a grade. We will just present the data. This table will serve as an aid to Ontarians so that they can compare climate change policies in one simplified document.

Our volunteers across Ontario also will use our survey questions at town halls and debates during the election. Other groups are welcome to use our questionnaire as a template for their questions to candidates.

Since September 2010, our members have been lobbying their federal and provincial parliamentarians for carbon fee and dividend: an upstream, national and incrementally rising revenue-neutral carbon tax where 100 per cent of the revenue collected by the government is returned to citizens on an equitable basis in a cheque.

Only two per cent of Canadians belong to political parties. Political stripes aside, elections provide an opportunity for Ontarians to empower political leaders to choose the best climate policies.